We rejoin the party after some time. They have retreated back to danid's quarters with kaea (possessed by moktan), and have begun to devise their schemes against Folendemkar.
They decide that the best way to bring the orcs back to their previous warlike state without causing too much destruction is to mobilize them in a war against the blight. They still feel lacking in details on this disease, however, and ask Kaea what he knows about it. He says he hasn't seen the Blight for many ages, but that it is weak to the same things the party already knew of: purple magic, and to a lesser extent fire. He does say, however, that the last time it was defeated was in this very city by an orcish magician named kidal. In fact, she is buried beneath their feet in the crypts below.
Halt manages to convince Kaea to let them check out Kidal's tomb, because if there's anything there to help them fight the Blight, the orcs will be more willing to go to war with it. And so, they head down.
The crypts are on level 11, the furthest depths of Folendemkar. None of the Blight have reached this deep yet, and people are for the most part just going about their daily lives. The people themselves become fewer and fewer the deeper they go, however, until they finally arrive at a stone door marked "Crypt" on level 10. It opens onto a tunnel leading down, with unlit torches along the walls. They light a torch using one of the sconces in the hallway, and head downwards.
The hallway lets off into a labyrinth of interconnected hallways, all meeting at right angles, and many ending in stone doors with family names above them. The tombs closest to the entrance are in alphabetical order, but as they go deeper and the tombs get newer, the organization falls apart. It is clear the oldest tombs were set up all at once when the older burial grounds were moved here, and newer tombs are just dug out as they're needed.
Close to the entrance the party finds the Dal tomb, which should house Kidal and her family line. It is locked with something which looks like it could be unlocked with some ancient iron key. Fluffy Fluffy transforms into a black widow spider, which bears the sign of the anvil and sickle moon on its back where normally there would be an hourglass. She climbs through the lock into the room, on the other side transforms into a komodo dragon, and unlatches the door. It grinds open.
Inside is a small chamber. Ten drawers are set into the walls, each bearing the name of the person buried there. And through a short passage around the corner comes a faint purple light.
The party cautiously peers around the corner. Beyond is another chamber of about the same size. A single drawer is set into the wall directly across from them bearing the name Kidal, and above it like an undying flame is an old rusted candle lantern, glowing purple. Writing in some ancient orcish dialect covers the walls.
After walking inside, Dave the Average notices that much of the writing is concentrated around the inside of the door frame. He can make out bits and pieces of the languages. He recognizes some spell casting vocabulary which was borrowed in some form into modern orcish. He also makes out what he thinks is the word for "water" co-occurring often with the spell-related words.
While looking at the writing, however, Dave realizes there's something unusual about the names on the drawers in the main body of the tomb. Not all of the drawers had the matronymic "Dal" on them. In fact, four of them all next to each other had totally different names!
Fluffy and Halt also look around during this time. Fluffy determines that the lantern looks like any object that Lord Cornelius might have enchanted to glow purple at some point. She intuits that any powerful magical artifacts are more likely to be well hidden in this tomb, potentially buried with the bodies themselves.
Halt comes to a similar conclusion regarding traps. If the tomb was so easy to get into, he reasons, there is likely to be more subtle and dangerous traps guarding whatever is valuable here. (did halt ask other questions?????)
Fluffy turns into a pygmy owl and flies up to ask Kaea what he might know about the writing on the wall. While she flies up, Dave and Halt continue looking around. They hear footsteps coming down the hallway towards the tomb.
Fluffy meanwhile tries to convince Kaea to come down to the tomb to look at the writing. He agrees to, on the condition she help him first. She follows him down the secret hallway towards the gardens, where gautil, pomin, and the club_and_hammer are still fighting the Blight. They arrive unnoticed by the fighting parties, and Kaea points at Pomin. He says "Her, the mage, you will kill her. Now."
Fluffy tries to convince Kaea that she is a powerful ally against the Blight, and so she should be kept alive to encourage the orcs to fight. Kaea agrees, and tells her to kill Gautil instead. Pomin turns around and looks at them, apparently alerted to their presence by the sound of their voices, as Fluffy transforms into a komodo dragon again and runs along the ledge on the side of the room. Pomin tracks her as she arrives close to Gautil and leaps off the ledge at her. Acting reflexively and defensively, Pomin fires a blast of magic at Fluffy and hits her in midair, but she still manages to transform into a bear and land on top of Gautil, ripping into her with her massive claws. Pomin looks on in horror when suddenly Kaea appears behind her and holds his sickle against her neck. "Finish her," he says, nodding towards Gautil, and Fluffy bites her neck, killing her.
Back in the tomb, Halt and Dave hide, ready to surprise their potential attacker. Halt stands in the rear corner on the side of the footsteps, his bow at the ready. Dave waits at the opposite corner with his sword. The short figure of stol steps through the door, and before he can stop himself Dave brings his sword down in a long slash. He manages to veer the sword off to the side, however, and it strikes the ground. They hear a low hum, and the purple light in the adjacent room strengthens. The door quickly swings shut of its own accord. They are trapped.
With their options limited, Dave and Halt decide to pivot to grave robbing and pull out one of the non-Dal drawers. It slides out and slams onto the ground. Inside is an orc skeleton, its bones thicker and better fortified than that of humans. It wears a decorative helmet and breastplate, both emblazoned with the emblem of the anvil and sickle moon, and lies next to a polearm. In the hollow space in the wall behind the drawer is a faint purple light. Dave looks into the drawer below it to find the skeleton there is attired in the same way, laying this time next to a mace, and he pulls that drawer out as well. He reaches down to grab a helmet and place it on his head.
Halt meanwhile is in the adjacent room. The extra purple light from earlier he noticed is from the words on the walls, which have begun to glow. He reaches up and yanks the glowing lantern off the wall. It easily snaps off in his hands. Dave feels the weight of the helmet and fits it on his head. He looks down at the skeleton he took it from, and behind the bones he sees only a void. There is a black nothingness behind the ribs and within the eye sockets. And then, the darkness in the eyes briefly flickers away, revealing the back of the skull. It does this a few more times, as if it is blinking.
Fluffy runs away from the body of Gautil, back towards the entrance to the gardens. She looks back over her shoulder, only to see Kaea slit Pomin's throat. She falls dead to the ground.